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BACKSPIN
Backspin: Jay-Z — Reasonable Doubt (1996)
Rather die enormous than live dormant. (93.5/100)
There may not be a more self-aware debut than Reasonable Doubt. Or, for that matter, a more prescient one.
Hitting shelves a full decade after his first appearance on wax (High Potent’s “H.C. Get Busy”) and a decade before he would solidify his spot as hip-hop’s greatest mogul, Jay-Z’s first long player delivers a hauntingly vivid tour through his past, present, and future.
At its core, Reasonable Doubt is both an origin story and a use case for the ethos that defines its through line. Jay-Z’s worldview is best summed up in the opening verse of the album’s centerpiece, “Can I Live”: “I’d rather die enormous than live dormant.” It’s the mantra behind the hustle that has characterized Jay-Z on and off wax for the entirety of his unparalleled 29-year tenure at the forefront of hip-hop and popular culture.
If a great album opener functions as a mission statement, “Can’t Knock the Hustle” is Jay-Z’s Magna Carta. Detailing the coke-powdered genesis of his philosophy and translating it into a bottom-line strategy in the rap racket, Jay-Z pulls us into his world with an approach as cerebral as it is visceral. “Can’t Knock the Hustle” is deceptively subdued as openers go. The…
